What's wrong with science?
Subtitle: Towards a People's Rational Science of Delight and Compassion
Publisher: Pentire Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: London, UK
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 304
ISBN-13: 9780955224010
Description: What ought to be the aims of science? How can science best serve humanity? What would an ideal science be like, a science that is sensitively and humanely responsive to the needs, problems and aspirations of people? How ought the institutional enterprise of science to be related to the rest of society? What ought to be the relationship between science and art, thought and feeling, reason and desire, mind and heart? Should the social sciences model themselves on the natural sciences: or ought they to take a different form if they are to serve the interests of humanity objectively, sensitively and rigorously? Might it be possible to get into human life, into art, education, politics, industry, international affairs, and other domains of human activity, the same kind of progressive success that is found so strikingly, on the intellectual level, within science? These are some of the questions tackled by What’s Wrong With Science? But the book is no abstruse treatise on the philosophy of science. Most of it takes the form of a passionate debate between a Scientist and a Philosopher, a debate that is by turns humorous, ironical, bitter, dramatically explosive. Even as the argument explores the relationship between thought and feeling, reason and desire, the two main protagonists find it necessary to examine their own feelings and motivations. The book is a delight to read and can be understood by anyone.  The book should have a wide appeal. It will be of interest to any scientist concerned about the intellectual and moral integrity of modern science – whether working in a physical, biological or social science. It will be of interest to educationalists, science teachers, students, 6th form pupils, historians, sociologists and philosophers of science, and indeed to anyone concerned about the place and role of science and technology in the modern world.  First published in 1976, the book is even more relevant today than it was 33 years ago.  This second edition has a new introduction in which the author explains how the book both exploits and develops Karl Popper’s philosophy.
Table of contents: title: Preface to Second Edition; title: A People's Science
label: One; title: Reason Requires a People's Science
label: Two; title: An Angry Clash Between Science and Philosophy
label: Three; title: What's Wrong With Philosophy?
label: Four; title: Outline of the Whole Argument
label: Five; title: An Aim-Oriented Ideal for Science
label: Six; title: Reason and Philosophies of Life
label: Eight; title: An Aim-Oriented Ideal for Reason
label: Nine; title: A Song to Help Make the World Happy
label: Ten; title: Notes; title: Further Reading: First Edition (1976); title: Further Reading: Second Edition (2009)